"I just don’t think I have any boundaries": Kirsty Almeida talks to Skiddle

Colourful folksy songstess Kirsty Almeida plays at The Ramsbottom Festival on Sunday 18th September.

Skiddle caught up with her for a chat about a creative yet disruptive childhood, the Manchester and London scenes, and why her record company asked her not to wear short skirts.

You're playing Ramsbottom Festival on 18th September. Are you excited?

I am! I am particularly excited about taking a steam train as my tour transport. My one hundred year old parlour guitar and I will be getting a steam train right to the festival.

As an artist, what do festival appearances mean to you?

Festivals are such a great celebration and the audiences are already warmed up and ready to have a good time, so the starting point of festival gigs is always so much higher, which means you can journey higher faster without having to work hard at all.

You have graced the stage at many a UK Festival such as Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Kendal Calling… What’s your fondest festival memory?

At Kendal Calling the crowd were so excitable that when I screamed, “Jump” the tent rocked as a few thousand people jumped up and down - it was wonderful.

You’re no stranger to live performances, and your performances are very creative: where does your creativity spring from?

I was a very creative child and I travelled a lot around the world, so with each new school I just became more and more focused on being creative as I didn’t need a group of friends to fit, and its' just spiralled from there. I was expelled a few times from schools for never going. I was usually writing songs or stories or painting instead, and now I just don’t think I have any boundaries as I’ve never had a normal 9-5 job. I really believe there’s always an answer to everything, you just have to find it. And because of that belief I allow outrageous ideas become reality.

What inspires you musically?

Sound.

Tell us about Odbod.

Odbod was a collective that has now become too big to call Odbod. I am part of The collective in Manchester, and we support each other in our projects and lend a hand whenever we can and support each others' projects. It’s a tough London-centric world still, the music scene, so we stick together to shine a light on what we’re doing and also to keep each other afloat and sparkling. I couldn’t do what I do without it.

You studied in London, and now are based in Manchester. Why didn’t you try to make it as an artist in London as so many other artists do?

I truly believe that it’s not about luck. Success is about finishing things. You come up with a creative idea, you make it happen, you finish it and then you tell people about it - that’s success, and you do not have to be in London to do that. As I said if there’s a group of artists doing cool stuff and supporting each other then that is a scene. You can make a scene happen anywhere and luckily we do it in Manchester, which is now a bohemian city producing many very exciting art forms. It’s an exciting time here in Manchester.

There has been a big increase of successful female singer songwriters in pervious years such as Adele, Florence & The Machine, Marina & The Diamonds – do you feel this has helped or hindered you? What perils have you had to face as a female singer/songwriter?

There have always been a lot of female singer songwriters, it's just that the music industry likes to have its fads and formulas. It makes no difference to me what the music industry wants to present things - its not real anyway. It’s media. As a female artist it’s been tough at times as your sex definitely comes into things. Someone at Decca, when I was signed to them last year, said I shouldn’t wear dresses shorter than the knee as they felt I didn’t have good shaped legs...

What is it that keeps you motivated?

I love what I do and I love doing it. The more creative I get, the more creativity keeps flowing and the more things fit into place and my mind and imagination become whirlwinds of possibility. I am a ‘do-er’, an ideas person, and I work very hard.

You worked with Youth (member of Killing Joke and legendary producer) on your current album. How was that? Have you any plans to work with any more influential producers?

I loved working with Youth - it was incredible and wild and he was a good role model as he too, is visual and a sound artist so it was great for me to watch and learn. Yes, I would love to work with more producers but what I am really interested in is collaborating with other producing artists.

Explain about your ‘6 Degrees of Separation 2 Jools Holland’. How did the idea come about?

I read the book ‘The Tipping Point’ and it discusses epidemics and how they come about and one of the book’s examples is about an experiment that happened to test the six degrees of separation formula. The idea being that we're only ever six people away from anyone on this planet, so I’ve decided to test it with six packages of my music and art beginning in six countries round the world with the hope of getting them to Jools Holland. Then hopefully he’ll love our music and put us on at New Years Eve.

What can we expect next from Kirsty Almeida?

The unexpected. Shh… Wait and see.

Interview: Jo Waddington

Catch Kirsty at Ramsbottom Festival on Sunday 18th September. Limited tickets are still available below.